Mary Connelley and John Biedebach

J shares more about himself. He says he grew up in Long Beach, California, went to college, and spent eight years in the army reserve. J says his primary career has been in high technology but fifteen years ago he became a volunteer firefighter, then “foolishly” went to nursing school, and is to finish. J says he currently works in the healthcare division of Amazon. He adds that he is a bible believing Christian but is concerned with the Baptist Church’s merging of social issues with Christianity.

M shares more about herself. She says she was born on the East coast then later moved to Kansas. M says she has been in the same job for thirty-seven years - delivering babies - and just retired two months ago. She adds that she was raised in the Catholic religion, later gravitated towards the Episcopal church and raised her kids in that church, but in the last ten years has strayed away from structured church altogether. M says she used to be a registered Republican, then an Independent, now is a registered Democrat.

J and M discuss more about the Black mortality rate and the concept of representation. They also discuss the Supreme Court judge initiation.

J explains why he describes himself as a “recovering Republican and Baptist”. He says there is no middle anymore and the reason is because there is no money in the middle. J says he is turned off by the fringe extremes.

J shares that his daughter is at the end of completing her certification to become a nursing midwife.

M says the c-section rate is much higher than it should be, sometimes in part for the mother’s safety but also in part for the provider’s convenience.

M shares her plans for retirement.

M says more about her family. She says she is number seven of eight kids. M shares that she lost both her parents by the time she was thirty and has also lost two siblings. M says she and her siblings have made it a priority to stay close and keep their families close. She talks about her children. She says five of her brothers are in recovery and have been clean for at least 25 years.

J says more about his kids. He shares that his youngest daughter deals with fetal alcohol syndrome. J says dealing with his daughter was the breakthrough that moved him to get past a lot of his prejudices. He says there is nothing more humbling than having a child with problems you can’t fix and when you run out of resources.

M talks about her youngest child and his recovery journey.

J says he went through a twelve step program with food addiction. M and J talk more about how humbling parenting and life have been.

J says social media is damaging because it masks that everyone goes through so much strife. He says it’s easy to hate people, but it’s incredibly hard to hate persons.

J talks about covid. He expresses that he wishes the United States would have handled the crisis differently. He says he hopes for more transparency and a unification. J and M discuss the things they have seen as medical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

J shares what he thinks people were considering when they were against the vaccine. M shares her frustrations with the opposition to vaccines.

J and M share their thoughts on the Ukrainian-Russian conflict.